Eltherington, the Hull-based manufacturer of aluminium cladding to the leisure industry, was looking for a solution that maintained a quick turnaround between coil changes, whilst completely eliminating manual effort to expand and contract the mandrels.
The company processes a vast range of coloured and textured materials and, in many cases, just a few blanks are cut from each coil. Atkin Automation’s solution means Eltherington’s production staff can now carry out these regular changes to the coil without operator input, via the ‘A’ frame support system.
Atkin’s Automation’s solution involved replacing all 13 of Eltherington’s existing ‘A’ frame type decoiling mandrels with the addition of Atkin’s standard two stage mechanical gearbox. When used in conjunction with a torque limited battery or pneumatic hand tool, this allows quick change-overs with no physical input from the operators.
The units, which have a capacity of up to 2,000k g x 1600 mm long, are also balanced so that the lifting points are in the correct position when at rest for transport and loading via a fork lift tine.
Craig Dunn, Eltherington’s group manufacturing director, says: “Our operators are delighted with the new mandrels, which have made our changeovers far simpler and improved overall efficiency in our processes.”
Geoff Barker, sales manager at Atkin Automation, adds: “There is a need to reduce manual handling in many industrial production processes for enhanced health and wellbeing of the workforce, and this solution for Eltherington shows how we can do this whilst also increasing efficiency.”